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What a difference a year makes. Exactly one year ago we launched a new website called Civil Beat. We had a clear vision in mind — serving you by delivering a new type of journalism — but exactly how we would get there was less clear.

Today we celebrate the journey, how far we’ve come since May 4, 2010. But what’s different about this birthday party is that the gifts — and there are plenty of them — are for our readers, our supporters, not for the birthday child.

If our first year is any indication, we expect to celebrate many more happy returns.

Mahalo!

This is a time we want to thank you. Perhaps you were a paid member and shared our articles with family and friends via email, Facebook or Twitter. Maybe you were an infrequent visitor to the site. Some of you emailed us tips or served as sources for our stories. No matter how you supported us, we’re grateful.

We’re also appreciative of the relationships we’ve forged with local media companies: Hawaii Public Radio, Clear Channel & The Rick Hamada Show, KITV and The Garden Island newspaper. These organizations have been gracious with the new kid on the block, and for that, we’re grateful.

We’ve always said that we wanted to get our journalism in front of as many people as possible. After a year, we’re happy to say that nearly 500,000 people have visited Civil Beat. Of course, our desired impact goes far beyond numbers. But we are extremely encouraged to know that Civil Beat has reached so many people in such a short period of time.

We’re thrilled that we’re celebrating our first birthday and we’d like to say mahalo for all you’ve done to help build Civil Beat into what it is today.

So what have we been up to over the past year? (I hope you’ll check out a video we made to tell you the story.)

Laying The Foundation & Building Credibility

Our main goal in the first year was to prove — to you and to ourselves — that we could provide Hawaii with a new kind of journalism. Journalism that is both practical and investigative. Practical in the sense that we would ask the “common sense” questions that you always wondered but nobody seemed to ask.

Investigative in the sense that we set out to ask the tough, probing questions that too often seemed to go unasked. One way to serve our community is to tell you whether you can believe what you’re being told. We base our work on getting to the root of issues, understanding laws, regulations and other necessary source documents to substantiate someone’s claim. We were committed to going further than what you may have become accustomed to.

Our commitment was to take those practical and tough questions and not stop until we got the answers. And then to share those answers with you in our articles and topic pages.

In short, our promise was to be your informed friend. Our loyalty was to you, to the truth.

All this doesn’t happen overnight and we certainly had to prove that: (1) we could deliver on our promise and (2) that this type of journalism could make a difference for our community and the democracy it sits on.

After a year, we hope you feel that we’ve delivered on our promise. We’re humbled by the impact Civil Beat reporting has had.

Another encouraging sign is the quality of discussions on the site, a great foundation for the Civil Beat community. Seeing thoughtful and engaged fellow citizens inspired us.

We still have a long way to go, but based on the feedback we’ve received we’re encouraged and energized by hearing that we’re making a positive impact. That you are glad we’re here.

Perhaps the most telling indicator of how Civil Beat has become part of the fabric of Hawaii is when we eavesdrop on our reporter-hosts’ phone conversations. In the beginning I would hear them call people and have to say, “I’m with Civil Beat, an online news service. We just launched….” That rarely happens anymore.

We’ve learned a lot from you on this journey.

For example, you helped us identify how to redesign and improve the site. It looks and acts much differently today than it did one year ago. Our live events were well-received but we needed to re-tool things a bit. We’re working on that.

We also learned that Civil Beat isn’t always intuitive to the first-time reader. It may take some time for someone to understand what Civil Beat is and how we’re different. But the good news is that once someone spends time reading Civil Beat, that person keeps coming back. We’ve learned that our Fact Checks are an approach that people appreciate, but that we need to make sure we pick the issues that matter to you.

We’ll keep taking risks and making mistakes because that means we’re innovating, pushing the envelope, and most of all, learning.

Enough of the self-reflection for now. In the coming days we’ll share a bit more about our future plans.

Party Time

For now, it’s time to celebrate by opening birthday gifts! We’re offering great promotions and prizes in May — there is something for everyone:

1. Register and get one month FREE! If you’re new to Civil Beat and want to see what all the fuss is about, register and you’ll get a free month (a $20 value). All you need to provide is your email — fast & easy.
2. Get 50% off your full membership. Want to save some money but still get the same Civil Beat quality? Buy a full membership or extend your current membership and get it for 50% off!
3. Birthday Sweepstakes. If the first two promotions weren’t enough, you’re automatically up for a chance to win amazing prizes by being a registered user or member. Yup, this is absolutely FREE!

Best of all, these all have zero calories. So eat up and thanks for helping us celebrate our birthday!